Toploader - a blast from the past

Just listened to my new copy of 'Dancing in the Moonlight' by Toploader. We used to have this on cassette in the car and the kids and I would play it loudly on the way to school. Well they've gone and grown up now and I've been missing my copy. Who knows where it went? Probably the same place as the car. Anyway, I bought it off Amazon at a bargain price (it's obviously not that popular), and played it this evening. It made me feel very happy and I could almost believe that Spring might be on the way, that is if that white stuff would stop falling from the sky. I remain an eternal optimist.

365 Days of Short Stories

Happy New Year and here's to 2010. I've decided my news year's resolution (revelation, revolution - there's a joke in there for the initiated) is to read a short story each and every day during 2010. Yes, I do know, that's 365 short stories - but it's just a case of getting into the habit. I think the reason short stories get less attention than they deserve, is because they are so seldom printed anywhere other than in collections, although It's good to see some of the papers including them again. Short stories are best read one at a time with a gap in between, allowing time to mull them over before moving on to the next. Rather like when one gets to the end of a novel - a pause is needed before opening the next one that waits tantalisingly on the shelf.

I'm not sure how I'll approach this exercise, but as a minimum, I will aim to note the title and author of the story and where I found it. I'll start by trying out a one to five star grading system, which will be based entirely on my personal views of them and not on what others have said.

Let's make a start and see how it pans out.

Today's story is 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories, published by Filquarian Publishing, LLC. I've chosen this one as it's a story I've been meaning to read since Jo Austen mentioned it at one of our MA sessions nearly two years ago. Father Christmas was kind to me this year (in the form of my daughter) and so I now own my own copy.

Star rating ***

I enjoyed it - thanks for the recommendation Jo, and for the book Jo Jo.